It became a necessity these days that pretty much all the computers must have an utility program like WinZip or WinRar to handle the compressed files or to compress large files. WinZip and WinRar are the most popular dominant programs that can handle the compressed files. Unfortunately both are not free and are paid softwares. Are there any free alternatives to the dominant WinZip and WinRar? Of course! In this article I’ll list out the top 5 free alternatives to WinZip and WinRar.

1. 7-Zip

Next to WinZip and WinRar, 7-Zip is the next most famous file archive program. It is open source (which means it’s free) and it supports pretty much all the known formats. 7-Zip’s compression ratio is 2% to 10% better than WinZip and it integrates with Windows Shell (which means your right-click context menus get 7-Zip’s menu items). It also supports Windows command line which would be helpful for those who prefer Windows command line. There is also a portable version of 7-Zip which would come in handy if you want to carry a file archive program on your thumb drive.

Download 7-Zip.

2. ZipStar

ZipStar is not a true freeware file archiving application for Windows but it can be used for free for non-commercial purposes. ZipStar does not support that many compression file formats as others but it does support CAB, ZIP and SQX formats. ZipStar relies on a well-known technology called Squeez, which is one of the fastest engine for file compression and extraction. It has one of the best user interfaces that blends-in nicely with Windows XP’s. With its complete integration with Windows Explorer ZipStar is another WinZip/WinRar alternative that you should seriously give it a try.

Download ZipStar for non-commercial use.

Buy ZipStar for commercial use.

3. ZipGenius

ZipGenius is another freeware file archiving utility for Windows. The cool thing about ZipGenius is that it can compress .iso disk images as well on top of its support for a wide variety of 20 different compression formats.

Download ZipGenius.

4. jZip

jZip is another easy-to-use freeware file archiving program for Windows. It does support many different file compression formats. The Windows Explorer like user interface makes it a bit comfortable to use. After compression it displays the archive contents so you can inspect and make sure for corrupt archive files.

Download jZip.

5. PeaZip

PeaZip is a little file archiving utility for Windows that’s free. It supports a wide range of compression formats including 7z, BZ2, GZ, PAQ, PEA, QUAD, split, TAR and ZIP for reading and 7z, ARJ, BZ2, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, GZ, ISO, JAR, LHZ, NSIS, PAQ, PEA, QUAD, RAR, RPM, split, TAR, Z and ZIP for writing.

Download PeaZip.